My Little Pony FiM: The Cutie Map (Review)

It's come to this!

I have been waiting a year for Season 5 after watching the Season 4 finale and it's finally here, up close and personal. My Little Pony's adult fanbase rejoiced the return of everyone's favorite Mane Six as they gallop across the small screen with new stories to tell. Did this one go out with a bang? I'd say yes. In fact, I was on the CinemaQuestria livestream when this aired. It was 2:00am when it came on and I went to bed with a bad headache. It was embarrassing but well worth it for me, hahaha... I'm not doing it again though. I'd rather watch it on YouTube or dailymotion, but at least I got Adblock from it. Anyway, enough of my rambling. The million dollar question is: Did this Season 5 premiere reach bronies expectations as well as kids? Let's dive right in. But first... SPOILER ALERT! Do not read this unless you have seen the episode.

Story
Taking place after the events of "Twilight's Kingdom" (and presumably "Rainbow Rocks") Twilight questions about why she was given a castle in the middle of Ponyville. Her friends assured her that things are going dandy but as they sit on their respected thrones it spawns a huge table in the middle, showing them the map of Equestria. The Mane Six's cutie marks magically points them to a disclosed area of Equestria. Twilight, thinking the map is telling them something, decides to go and investigate the area with the company of her friends of course (She is the Princess of Friendship after all.) After coming to the spot, they discover a village of smiling ponies with equal signs plastered on their flanks as their cutie marks. Pinkie Pie suspects something's up while Fluttershy maintains her spirit as she takes a liking of the townsfolk, the other four are completely weirded out by the looks of the townsfolk. In the town they meet the village leader, Starlight Glimmer, who takes her role as maintaining equality in the village. She tells the Mane Six that this village is where ponies go to give up their cutie marks and become equal like the townsfolk. The Mane Six later meet up with an underground resistance who desire their cutie marks again. They tell them that there is a cave which houses said cutie marks and Twilight decides to ask Starlight to take her to them. Starlight shows them the Staff of Sameness which has the ability to take away cutie marks and stores them in glass shelf of the cave. Twilight promises to bring the townsfolk their cutie marks back, however thanks to Pinkie's dead giveaway sentence, the Mane Six get their cutie marks ripped right out of their flanks and get stored away with the others. Apparently their cutie marks are what give them their powers and talents as they were stripped away and lose an amount of their color. The team ends up being captured and Starlight will let them out if they decide to join her with equality. Twilight comes up with a plan in this moment and has Fluttershy play double agent. During Fluttershy's attempt to find her friend's cutie marks, she discovers that Starlight's equal sign cutie mark is fake and on the next day exposes it to everyone in the village by splashing water on her. This leads Starlight's crowd to lose their loyalty towards her and she rushes back to her house. While everypony gets their cutie marks back from the cave, Starlight still holds Twilight and her friends' cutie marks, making sure they will stay that way after the trouble they caused for her. This leads to a chase scene with the villagers chasing after her with the conclusion of her getting stopped by getting plowed by snow and dropping the cutie marks from her magical aura. Twilight and her friends get their cutie marks back but Starlight gets away at the end. In the end, the village goes back to being a friendly and happy place it was and Twilight's mission here is done.

Presentation
This episode surpassed my expectations. The animation has improved a lot and it really shows. What really shocks me about it is that this episode is written by three people. Meghan McCarthy drew the story up while the rest was written out by Scott Sonneborn and Mitch "M.A." Larson. Honestly, I'm glad M.A. Larson is back on the writing team. Ever since the alicorn controversy, bronies alike have been making fun of this guy with memes like "THANKS M.A. LARSON" or "I BELIEVE IN M.A. LARSON". And truthfully to me, that's getting kind of annoying. And I thought Miaymoto wasn't getting so much teased.

Quality
Like I said, the animation looks good. I know this is flash but it's kind of grown on me since the start. The visuals added in it really looked good. And the writing is really great too. After Sonneborn's poor attempt at writing characters in 'Somepony to Watch Over Me', I think he's been given a more clear direction, maybe it's because he's paired with Larson that makes the episode feel good. The characters are perfectly in character. I've heard from many on the internet that say that Twilight Sparkle is a Mary-Sue. DO I F**KING CARE? No, I don't. Twilight acts well in character and keeps her hopes up whenever she can. I will say, she was pretty much useless for most of conflict, considering that she is only character in two parters to solve conflicts, it was actually Fluttershy who saved the day by revealing who Starlight Glimmer is. Let's talk about Fluttershy: She was acting friendly towards the townsfolk because she thinks they're friendly while looking past the creepy smiles they give out. That's just Fluttershy in character. Not much I can say for the others, Rarity acts like Rarity. Applejack is still Applejack. And Rainbow Dash is still... well... Rainbow Dash. Pinkie Pie is very much in character. She still has her cartoony instincts and wacky personality but she remained very consistent. She knew the smiles were out of place. I believe she has some kind of smile detector. And before anyone asks; YES, I see some holes in the story. In one scene, Pinkie is forced to eat a bunch of uncooked muffins in order for the Mane Six to go down and see Sugar Belle in the cafe while on the threat of being watched. We see her tumbling down the stairs with a bloated stomach but in the next scene she lost all that weight completely. Maybe it was to drive the plot, maybe they didn't want Pinkie to stay like that for the whole episode, but I'll say it again; Cartoon logic. Another hole that confuses me is where exactly did Starlight learn the power to take away somepony's cutie mark? That sounds like dangerous magic to be held by a pony. Also, WHERE THE ***K IS PRINCESS CELESTIA while all of this is happening? Does she seriously want Twilight to handle all of this on her own? I'll just assume she's off vacationing with Luna in Hawaii then. And finally, hadn't Pinkie not give away Twilight's plan in the cave they would've easily resolved the conflict. But these are just minor nitpicks but I guess they don't call me fanboy for nothing.

Verdict
This is the best episode to kickstart the fifth season. Like I said, the animation is good, the characters are well in character like in many two parters and I'm hoping the villain will return (if not) the season finale. There are so many possibilities for this villain to get revenge and yes I've heard people say she's Amon. The voice cast once again amazes me. They perform their roles so perfectly as their respected characters. Hearing Twilight groan in pain almost felt real when getting her cutie mark removed. Hopefully the rest of the season will get more amazing by the time we reach the finale. My Little Pony continues to become more and more amazing as I watch. What started out once as a funny cute magical show for young girls meant to sell toys, became such a huge phenomenon in ridiculous ways imaginable. And it continues to get awesome. Meghan McCarthy, M.A. Larson and all the others working at DHX, do not fail us to keep making this show possible. I salute you both. Oh and no... Hasbro... I'm still not buying your toys unless you have a Sweetie Belle plushie.

Final Score: 9.2/10
+Well Written Story
+Ponies Are in Character
+Great Animation
+Perfect Start to Season 5
+Interesting Villain
-Twilight Not Saving the Day
-Pinkie Screwing Up

I forget to mention the "In Our Town" song in this review. It's just a song about propagander and equality nothing more. Anyway, after watching the livestream, I have taken up new interests in the world of animation. Such as the new Disney XD show "Star vs the Forces of Evil". I look forward to watching that show as it looks really good with an interesting concept and likable characters. Hell, it could be my next fandom transition, but we'll just wait and see. Thank you for reading the review. I'm off to slay some Heartless and take down Organization XIII. SEE YA!